Island City Chorus

Our Mission

Our mission is to educate our membership to continually improve their vocal quality and acappella performance, for the benefit of audiences as well as ourselves.

Our History

Barbershop singing has been a proud part of Montreal's musical scene for over 50 years; the Barbershop Harmony Society celebrated its 75th anniversary in the summer of 2013. We have brought home trophies from competitions and have won first place honors at the Regional Choral Competition (ARCIM), have sung the national anthem for the Montreal Expos, participated in the Mondiale Chorale in Laval, QC, and more recently performed in the second edition of the Montreal A Cappella festival in May 2014.

Sing Canada

Sing Canada Harmony is a registered charity dedicated to the support of vocal music education in Canada. Visit the Sing Canada Harmony website (https://singcanadaharmony.ca/) for information about our scholarship, donor, and legacy programs and to discover what we can do for you or someone you know. Barbershop singing has been a proud part of Montreal's musical scene for over 50 years; the Barbershop Harmony Society celebrated its 75th anniversary in the summer of 2013. We have brought home trophies from competitions and have won first place honors at the Regional Choral Competition (ARCIM), have sung the national anthem for the Montreal Expos, participated in the Mondiale Chorale in Laval, QC, and more recently performed in the second edition of the Montreal A Cappella festival in May 2014.

Sing

Barbershop is a style of music that is arranged in four-part a capella (or unaccompanied) for male and/or female voices. It is performed by either a quartet of the four parts or a chorus where a larger number of singers sing each of the four parts. Structurally, both a quartet and a chorus sing the same notes. Our art form is one of four musical styles originating in North America. Almost any song can be arranged for barbershop singing. The four parts are
bass, baritone, lead and tenor.

Bass

The bass is the deepest voice in barbershop. Technically, basses sing the "roots and tonics" which are the foundational notes of the chord being sung. Depending on the arrangement, basses are variously called upon to sing drone-like melodic lines to lively, percussive rhythms full of onomatopeias.

Baritone

The bass and baritone together build a harmonic foundation that through sound wave physics, produces subtle higher notes called "overtones." The baritone line is often un-intuitive and sounds quite 'jazzy' when sung on its own. Singing baritone requires a good sense of tuning and a disciplined approach to learning the part.

Lead

The lead sings the part that people will recognize as the familiar melody. It is a lively part that demands vocal agility and range. Oftentimes, the lead be called upon to sing more words, and with timing that is different than the other parts. Singing the melody may sound like the easiest job in barbershop, but it's not!

Tenor

In most music, the melody is carried in the topmost pitch of an arrangement. Barbershop is different: the highest pitch (called 'tenor' whether sung by a man or a woman) is a harmony part that floats lightly above the lead, in order to enhance it, in a musical interval called a "third" or four semitones.